Expert: Sarah-Jayne Caroline Bass from www.adders.org - 8/12/2004

Question
My son is 12  has resently been seen by the school doctor, he has had problems at school for many years with poor concentration poor listening skills the school doctor said as it did not present until the age of 12 it cannot be adhd even though he has comments about poor concentration on all his school reports is it possible that it could be adhd

Answer
Hi

I am not medically qualified so to be honest the best thing for you to do would be to find out as much as you can about ADD/ADHD - you will find a lot of information on our main site at www.adders.org where there is also a forum board where you would be most welcome and I am sure you would also get a lot of support from the other parents - also the Ask the Expert Board there has a fully qualified doctor who answers questions although he can offer advice he obviously cannot diagnose over the net but he will suggest that you arrange for your child to be seen by the local child and adolescent psychiatrist and he will also try to help with some ideas and information as well.

I am not sure where in the world you are but also on adders.org we have support group contacts for around 30 countries world-wide so I would also suggest you find a local contact as they will be able to let you know about the services in your area and how to access these.

Having said that you say that he has had problems for many years but the doctor is saying that they did not appear until he was 12 so therefore could not be ADHD - to a point the doctor is right as symptoms need to have been present before the age of 7 according to the diagnostic criteria - copy of this is also on adders.org so it would be worth looking at that as well first.  The thing that puzzles me is that you say he has had the problems for years so I would presume that therefore they were present before the age of 7 so I am not quite sure what the doctor is speaking about - if you son has been referred to him because of a problem then it appears obvious to me that even the school believe that the problem has been there for quite a while too.  

So yes it could still be that he has ADHD - from your comments it leads me to believe that the symptoms were there before the age of 7 and that this doctor hasn't really taken things you have said about previous years into account.  Therefore it would be worth asking for a proper referral to the child and adolescent psychiatrist who would be able to carry out full and accurate assessments but sending out rating scales to be filled in by both home and school and take a detailed history of the problems then base an accurate assessment and diagnosis on this rather than a few minutes with a normal schools doctor.

Hope this helps a bit and as I say check us out at www.adders.org where I am sure you will find loads of extra support as well - also you can get in touch with me direct from there and maybe let me know where in the world you are so I may be able to help further or you will be able to find a contact for a local group who will be able to let you know about the systems in your own area.

Take care
Caroline Hensby
www.adders.org
support@adders.org